Of how the Island of Madeira was peopled, and also the other Islands
that are in that part.
Since I have related, in the fifth Chapter of this work, where I spoke
of the especial things which the Infant performed for the service of God
and the honour of the realm, how that among the other matters
accomplished by him was the peopling of these islands, I would here tell
briefly of the said peopling, and the more particularly as in the past
few chapters I have spoken of the Canary Islands. Now it was so, that in
the household of the Infant there were two noble esquires, brought up by
that lord, men young in years and fit for great deeds. And after the
Infant returned from raising the siege of Ceuta, when the united power
of those Moorish Kings had encircled it, these men begged him to put
them in the way to perform some honourable deed, like men who desired it
much, for it seemed to them that their time was ill spent if they did
not toil in some undertaking with their bodies. And the Infant,
perceiving their good wills, bade them make ready a vessel in which they
were to go on a warlike enterprise against the Moors, directing them to
voyage in search of the land of Guinea, which he already had purposed to
discover.[N199] And since it pleased God to ordain such a benefit, both
for this Kingdom and also for many other parts, He guided them so that,
even with the weather against them, they reached the island that is now
called Porto Santo, being nigh to the island of Madeira, the which may
be seven leagues in circumference. And so they remained there for some
days and right well examined the land, and it seemed to them that it
would be a very profitable thing to people it. And returning thence to
the Kingdom, they spoke of it to the Infant, and described the goodness
of the land and the desire they had as to its peopling; and this pleased
the Infant much, and he straightway took order for them to obtain what
was needful to enable them to return to the said island. And as they
were busied in the work of making ready for their departure, there
joined himself to their company Bartholomew Perestrello, a nobleman of
the household of the Infant Don John; and these men, having all their
things ready, set out on their voyage to the said island. And it
happened that among the things they took with them to stock the said
island was a she-rabbit, which had been given to Bartholomew Perestrello
by a friend of his, and the rabbit went in a hutch pregnant, and it came
about that it gave birth to young on the sea, and so they took all these
to the island. And when they were lodged in their huts, to make ready
houses for themselves, they set free that female rabbit with her young
to breed; and these in a very short time multiplied so much as to
overspread the land, so that our men could sow nothing that was not
destroyed by them.
And it is a marvel how they found in the year following their arrival,
that although they killed a very great quantity of these rabbits, there
yet remained no lack of them. Wherefore they abandoned that island and
passed over to the other isle of Madeira, which will be forty leagues in
circumference, and twelve leagues distant from Porto Santo; and there
stayed the two, to wit, John Gonçalvez and Tristam, and Bartholomew
Perestrello returned to the kingdom. This second island they discovered
to be good, especially in very noble flowing waters, which are made to
irrigate what part they will; and there they began to make very great
sowings, from the which they obtained most abundant crops. From that
time they saw that the land had good air and was healthy, and they found
many birds, which in the beginning they were wont to capture in their
hands, and they discovered many other good things in the said island. So
they let the Infant know all this, and he straightway laboured to send
there other people and ornaments for a church, and clerics, so that in a
very brief space a great portion of that land was put to use. And the
Infant, considering how those two men were the pioneers of this
settlement, bestowed on them the chief governance of the island, to wit,
on John Gonçalvez Zarco, who was a noble man and had been made a knight
at the siege of Tangier in a battle that the Infant won there upon a
Thursday, of which the history of the Kingdom maketh a fuller mention.
And this John Gonçalvez had already been present at very great actions,
and especially at the raising of the siege of Ceuta and the overthrow of
the Moors that took place on the day of arrival. And to this man the
Infant gave the governance of the portion of the island called Funchal,
and the other part called Machico[CI][N200] he bestowed on Tristam, who
also was dubbed a knight in a foray that was made at Ceuta; and he was a
very daring man, but not so noble in every other respect as John
Gonçalvez. And the beginning of the peopling of this island took place
in the year of the birth of Jesus Christ one thousand and four hundred
and twenty; and at the time of the making of this history it was peopled
reasonably well, for there were in it one hundred and fifty inhabitants,
besides other persons such as traders and unmarried men and women and
youths, and boys and girls who had been born on the said island, as well
as clerics and friars, and others who came and went for their
merchandise and for those things which they cannot dispense with in that
island. And in the year one thousand and four hundred and forty-five the
Infant despatched a knight called Gonçallo Velho,[N201] who was a
Commander of the Order of Christ, to go and people other two islands
that are distant from those one hundred and seventy leagues to the
north-west. And one of these the Infant Don Pedro began to people with
the approval of his brother; but his death followed shortly, therefore
it remained afterwards for the Infant Don Henry to continue this work.
And to this island Don Pedro had assigned the name of St. Michael, on
account of the singular devotion which he had ever felt to that Saint.
And the Infant Don Henry also caused to return to the island of Porto
Santo, for the purpose of peopling it, Bartholomew Perestrello, the same
man who had first voyaged there with John Gonçalvez and Tristam; but
owing to the multitude of rabbits, which are almost without end, no
tillage is possible there, but many cattle are reared there, and
dragon's blood is also collected there and brought for sale to this
Kingdom, and taken to many other parts as well. And he turned out cattle
on another island which lieth seven leagues from the island of Madeira,
intending to have it peopled like the other, and its name is Deserta.
And of these seven islands, four are as large as that of Madeira and
three are smaller. And for the profit of the Order of Christ, whose
governor the Infant was at the time of the said peopling, he gave the
said Order all the revenues ecclesiastical of the island of Madeira and
of Porto Santo and all the revenues both ecclesiastical and temporal of
the other island, of which he made Gonçallo Velho Commander. And beside
all this he bequeathed to the said Order the tithes and half the sugar
produce of the Island of St. Michael.
[Footnote CI: In the text, "Machito."]